Through two-plus games of hockey this season, Winnipeg Jets forwards had combined to score zero five-on-five goals.
That changed in a big way Monday night in Pittsburgh as the Jets got three such goals in the third period of a 3-2 win over the Penguins, improving to 2-0-1 on the young season.
The Jets managed to come on top after a back-and-forth final frame that saw the two teams score four times in just over a four-minute span.
New Jets goalie Clay Stevenson stopped 30 of 32 shots to win in his Jets debut.
“Obviously he made some big, big stops,” said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. “And right up to the end of the game there he was real solid, looked confident, looked comfortable and it was great to see.
“He came as advertised. Really liked how he was poised and played well.”
It was just the sixth career NHL start for Stevenson.
“Honestly, I don’t even have the words,” said Stevenson. “It means a lot, that’s for sure. I really wanted to just be there for the guys in this moment.
“I felt confident. The guys in the room gave me a lot of confidence throughout early on in the game and even in morning skate today.”
Alex Iafallo, Adam Lowry and Cole Perfetti had the markers for the Jets as they picked up at least a point for the third straight game to stay unbeaten in regulation.
After getting shutout in the first two periods, Arniel flip flopped his forward lines in the third period and it paid off almost immediately.
“We really weren’t getting pucks down below the goal line,” said Arniel. “And just blended it up to kinda give everybody kinda a different feel and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But at the end of the day, we did a better job in the third of just staying dialed in and staying with our structure. But more than anything we got pucks down deep and then forced them to play in their end of the rink.”
Perfetti now has five points in the first three games while Mark Scheifele is still pointless.
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The Penguins got the first power play of the night when Viggo Bjorck was called for the first penalty of his young career. The Jets killed it off, allowing the rookie to have a good look to score right out of the box but his shot was denied by Sergei Murashov.
Gabriel Vilardi had multiple chances to get on the board in the opening frame. His first came at the back door after a great pass from Isak Rosen, but Murashov made the save. Vilardi also struck iron from the slot after a turnover by the Penguins in their own end.
When all was said and done, the score remained 0-0 after 20 minutes with Winnipeg outshooting Pittsburgh 12-11, including 8-1 over the final 7:30.
Less than a minute into the second, it was Kyle Connor’s turn to rip one off the post, seconds before setting up Scheifele for a net-front chance that was swiped away by the glove of Murashov, who was making just his fifth NHL start.
Several minutes later, the two combined again for another chance as they got free on a partial two-on-one. Scheifele set up Connor for a one-timer but Murashov denied it with the blocker.
With 10:33 to go in the second, Pittsburgh thought for a moment that they had opened the scoring when Ben Kindel redirected a high, fluttering puck through the legs of Stevenson.
Officials immediately waved it off, deeming that the puck was steered in by a high stick. But after they reviewed the play for a few minutes, they determined that Kindel’s stick was not above the crossbar when it touched the puck, so Pittsburgh was given the goal.
Winnipeg got their first power play look with 6:55 to go in the period when Blake Lizotte was called for boarding Dylan DeMelo. But after going 4-for-7 in their first two games, they came up empty on the chance, failing to get a shot on goal.
In the final minute of the period, the Jets hit the iron again, with Neal Pionk ripping a shot from the point that clanged off the crossbar and out of play.
Pittsburgh outshot the Jets 11-8 in the period and carried the 1-0 lead into the third.
But it didn’t take too long for Winnipeg to draw level. Iafallo carried the puck over the Pittsburgh blue line and dished it to Rosen on his right. Rosen then fired a shot that was stopped by Murashov but Erik Karlsson pushed the rebound right to the stick of Iafallo at the side of the net for a tap-in with 15:17 to go in the third.
The goal came after Arniel shuffled the bottom three lines to start the third, with Morgan Barron moving up to the second line, Rosen and Iafallo joining Adam Lowry on the third line and Brad Lambert sliding down to the fourth line.
The third line struck again with 12:52 to go in the third. After DeMelo forced a turnover at the point, Lowry won a battle to free the puck to Iafallo, who drove hard to the net and drew a delayed penalty. Murashov lost track of where the rebound was, allowing Lowry to race to it and poke it home for his first of the season.
Less than two minutes later, the Pens tied things up. A failed clear by Bjorck led to Ville Koivunen grabbing the puck out of the air, putting it on the ice and passing it to the corner for Kindel. He spotted a wide-open Declan Carlile in the slot, who wired a wrister past Stevenson with 11:07 remaining.
The game remained tied for all of nine seconds as the Jets struck right back off the ensuing faceoff.
Pittsburgh actually won the draw but misplayed the puck just outside their own blue line. Josh Morrissey corralled it, skated into the Pens’ zone and sent a cross-ice pass that Perfetti blasted past Murashov to restore Winnipeg’s lead.
The Jets nearly doubled their lead with just under three minutes left when a seeing-eye point shot from Dylan Samberg rang off the post.
Moments later, Pittsburgh pulled their goalie for an extra skater. It took a while for the Pens to get a shot on goal, and with less than 20 seconds to go they got their best look. After Scheifele turned the puck over at the blue line, Evgeni Malkin got a hard shot off from the high slot, but Stevenson turned it aside with his blocker.
Murashov stopped 30 shots in defeat.
The Jets made two lineup changes with Cole Koepke and Jack St. Ivany seeing their first game action of the season, while Tyrel Bauer and Nino Niederreiter came out.
Winnipeg will now return to the Manitoba capital for a three-game homestand and will host the Colorado Avalanche Wednesday night. Puck drop is just after 6:30 p.m. with an extended pregame show on 680 CJOB beginning at 4 p.m.
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